"Just think of the tragedy of teaching children not to doubt."— Clarence Darrow

withdrawal syndrome

While lately I haven’t been experiencing the emotional downswing of my depressive tendencies, I still have been very much perpetuating my social withdrawal, both in the real world and in the virtual environments in which I participate.

This came particularly to light on Monday, when I received an evite from my friend Craig–whom I’d consider my best friend locally–for a pre-summer get-together tonight at a local beer and billiards hangout. The invitation said “Nothing formal!… Eliot [his roommate] and I just needed an excuse to get out and drink,” but seemingly contradictorily, “This may be the last time we get to see some of you for quite some time.” And Eliot, in his acceptance of the invitation, wrote, “Got to see my roomie go out with a bang!”

Confused, I wrote to Craig, and in his reply email he told me that he’s leaving this coming Monday for five and a half weeks in Europe. I’d been so out of touch with him over the past month or more that I didn’t even know he was planning a trip to Europe, much less preparing for an imminent departure.

And my out-of-town and Internet friends have been wonderfully patient with me through this bout of uncommunicativeness, for which I’m grateful. I’ve made some small strides over the past couple of months, having gotten back in touch electronically with three people very important to me, and in person with Sheldon and Lisa; given that it’s often a struggle for me to keep up my end, I’m very fortunate that my closest friendships have tended to weather these stretches of inactivity and inattention so well.